So who knows if Bakerman is still reading this but if you are then for what it's worth I agree with Rhodes, I would take Judo or BJJ rather than Japanese Jujitsu because they are much more physical and I also agree that physical fitness is important for sport and in all aspects of your life. If you are more interested in weapons and striking though, you might want to look at JJJ instead because Judo is almost exclusively throwing and grappling (including some chokes and locks for submissions) while BJJ focuses less on throwing, but more on a takedown to grappling position and then lots of submissions of all kinds, many that you don't find in Judo. Depending on the BJJ club you might do a good bit of strikinga and kicks related to your holdowns and takedowns too.

Re: Taison vs. Gus

Dude, just because you can't understand what somebody means doesn't mean that what they have said isn't valid, or that you can't learn from them. I took Gus to mean that as he has been taught, there are 3 aspects to Judo and that he has taken what he has learned there - give and take and respect- and has applied it to the street and other areas of his life with some success and feels he is a better man than he would otherwise be both in the Dojo and out of it than if he had not ever taken Judo. I would agree with that because I feel the same about myself. I think I have greatly benefitted and become a better person for having practised it for so long. Not better than YOU or Gus, just better than ME if I hadn't taken judo at all.

I'm kind of puzzled by the mention of dangerous kicks and blows but maybe wherever he is learning "Judo" the instructor has unfortunately seen fit to combine such things with Judo training and call it Judo. As we probably all know, Judoka can get really hornery about it if the art/sport is misrepresented so for the record, aside from Goshin-jitsu and some very high level black belt training Judo in no way trains in striking or kicking or anything like that!

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You can't control the waves, but you can learn how to surf.

I,ve been training in Japanese Jujutsu for 12 years, and it is very physical, yes ju-jutsu has competitions, and yes you can strike but in a controled manner. ju-jutsu has it all if you can find a school that teaches it the old way. My school teaches Stand up punches, kicks, blocks, throws, standing chokes arm locks,and all the ground work one would find in a BJJ school since it came from Judo and Judo came from Ju-jutsu. If anyone is interested in the Ju-justu competitions check out the usjujitsu.com it's the United States JU-Jitsu Federation, so check it out read the rules and check out the pics and then tell me JU Jutsu is not physical.

I've never seen an official syllabus for BJJ. In the beginning you are taught the basics of positioning and a few submissions, and you get promoted based on your ability to apply that knowledge.

You will have to be able to tap out other white belts and at least be competitive with blue belts for your first promotion to blue. On the average I think you'll be a white belt for 2 years. Then it seems to be another 3-5 years for each belt after that.

The belts should be white, blue, purple, brown and black.

Bottom line on BJJ promotions...if you cant dominate and tap people, you can forget about promotions.

depends on the style of ju jitsu you wanna take, some forms of ju jitsu are for self defence and not competitive at all like hakuda ryu which involves no rules in fighting eye gouging, hair pulling, hitting in the places which hurt a lot lol hehehe is all aloud(obviusly in training we dont do eye gougding just a hard slap on the face, and no kicking in the groin even though I have been kicked there before, normaly a hard kick/punch/slap on the upper leg which still hurts and puts me down), but judo on the other hand is more of a sport rather than a martial art it can be a martial art but just depends on the eyes of the martial artist, on the other hand brasilian jiu jitsu and gracie jiu jitsu are very much competitive with lots of competitions I dont know where you live so it depends on the location as well but brasillian jiu jitsu is basicly traitional judo.

BJJ isn't like traditional judo.. judo is pretty much just getting your opponent to the floor. BJJ added upon traditional jiu jitsu with various techniques. And BJJ definetly isn't a derivative of judo.

Judo was made to be a safer version of jiu jitsu compromised of only throws.

Actually BJJ doesn't really have that many takedowns. Judo's specialty is in takedowns

The BJJ they teach in American may have takedowns because they mix it with Greco-Roman wrestling. In other parts of the world BJJ remains mostly a ground fighting specialty art with a major weakness in takedowns.

That's why it is better to cross train in both Judo and BJJ or Ju Jitsu.